Both of my CTs seem to have very different attitudes about teaching. One CT, who I will call X, expects students to be in charge of their own learning. X does not prompt them to take notes and expects them to sit still, take notes, listen closely, and have their phones face down on their desk. X asks them to put their phones face down on their desk at the beginning of every class, but it is not enforced and there are always a lot of students messing with their phones while they should be listening to the teacher. Occasionally, X will remind them that their phones are not to be used in class. The students are very quiet and still while X is teaching, but they do not seem engaged. They seem extremely bored and zoned out. X will ask fairly simple questions and the same two or three students may answer the question, but most of the time there is silence and blank stares. The students are very well behaved, but there is just something missing from the classroom, in my opinion. Those students are not actively listening and I doubt they are learning very much. I feel bad for them because while observing I was tired and yawning and I enjoy what they are learning! One thing that I do not like about X's style of teaching is the type of questions they ask. The questions are always basic level questions that have a specific, correct answer that X is looking for. There is nothing interesting about the questions and they are meant solely to see if students are paying attention to the boring lesson. I don't mean to sound so harsh, but it is something that really bothers me. The other thing that bothers me about how X asks questions is that there is hardly any wait time. Most of the time, X will answer their own questions. I feel like the students never have a chance to feel curious about some really incredible things they are learning about. The students are being spoon-fed the information they need and it is not fun and it is not engaging, yet the students are very well behaved. I don't understand how that happens. Maybe it is because the teacher is strict, but the only "punishment" I have ever seen in X's classroom is that students must stay after if they are tardy without a pass or they do not finish the day's work in time. Maybe they are so well behaved because they are half asleep. X mostly stands in the front of the room to lecture, but this is probably due to the fact that X's technology is very hard to reach from any other point in the room. X must stay close to a computer and/or the white boards. X does move around the room to help students during individual or small-group work.
My other CT, Y, has a completely different attitude about teaching that fits more in-line with what I hope to do in my classroom. Y does whatever they can to get the students engaged. Y begins the day by having the students write the objective and then they do a Do Now. They go over the Do Now as a class, which provides some feedback about their understanding. From there, Y will teach, usually with demonstrations and deeper level questions, for about 10-15 minutes. After that, the students will have some time to work independently, or as a group. Y likes to allow the students to move during the class period. They usually change activities every 10-15 minutes. This allows the students to move around, wake-up, and hopefully re-focus. I do notice that students are much more likely to be off task in this class and students are much louder and rowdier. I would not say this is a bad thing, but there is more of a struggle to manage the classroom with this style. Overall, I think this style is more successful at getting the students engaged and actively learning the material, but there are challenges. This style also allows for a lot more small-group or one-on-one help because during independent and small-group work Y will walk around and ask how students are doing, and help them if they have any questions or misconceptions. At the end of the three lessons I have seen, Y will ask students to work together to put answers to questions on white boards and then share them out to the rest of the class. The class then takes pictures of their work and uploads them to a shared folder in OneNote. I love this idea because student can easily use this to go back and see the work they have done. The close of the lesson is usually the students going back to their seats to look back at their objective to see if they achieved it. At this time, Y may clarify the common mistakes or misconceptions they heard while walking around. While I really like this style and I see more engagement and learning in Y's class I am nervous about the added classroom management. It is especially hard if you have several hyperactive kids because I feel like the small-group time is just spent chasing them down to re-direct their attention. This does not make me want to teach like X, but it makes me wonder how I can better manage those students. Another thing that worries me about Y's style is that many times during small-group work the students will not help each other. There have been several occasions where I have gone over to a small group and asked if they were all on the same page or on the same questions. More often than not, one or two students will be done while other are struggling to finish. I have to specifically ask the students who are done to help explain how they answered a question to a student who is struggling. Sometimes the struggling students get defensive and say that they don't need help - even though they clearly need help. I usually step in and guide them a little, but it would be so wonderful if the students helped each other. I wonder how you can create a community in the classroom that better encourages students take initiative to help each other.
My other CT, Y, has a completely different attitude about teaching that fits more in-line with what I hope to do in my classroom. Y does whatever they can to get the students engaged. Y begins the day by having the students write the objective and then they do a Do Now. They go over the Do Now as a class, which provides some feedback about their understanding. From there, Y will teach, usually with demonstrations and deeper level questions, for about 10-15 minutes. After that, the students will have some time to work independently, or as a group. Y likes to allow the students to move during the class period. They usually change activities every 10-15 minutes. This allows the students to move around, wake-up, and hopefully re-focus. I do notice that students are much more likely to be off task in this class and students are much louder and rowdier. I would not say this is a bad thing, but there is more of a struggle to manage the classroom with this style. Overall, I think this style is more successful at getting the students engaged and actively learning the material, but there are challenges. This style also allows for a lot more small-group or one-on-one help because during independent and small-group work Y will walk around and ask how students are doing, and help them if they have any questions or misconceptions. At the end of the three lessons I have seen, Y will ask students to work together to put answers to questions on white boards and then share them out to the rest of the class. The class then takes pictures of their work and uploads them to a shared folder in OneNote. I love this idea because student can easily use this to go back and see the work they have done. The close of the lesson is usually the students going back to their seats to look back at their objective to see if they achieved it. At this time, Y may clarify the common mistakes or misconceptions they heard while walking around. While I really like this style and I see more engagement and learning in Y's class I am nervous about the added classroom management. It is especially hard if you have several hyperactive kids because I feel like the small-group time is just spent chasing them down to re-direct their attention. This does not make me want to teach like X, but it makes me wonder how I can better manage those students. Another thing that worries me about Y's style is that many times during small-group work the students will not help each other. There have been several occasions where I have gone over to a small group and asked if they were all on the same page or on the same questions. More often than not, one or two students will be done while other are struggling to finish. I have to specifically ask the students who are done to help explain how they answered a question to a student who is struggling. Sometimes the struggling students get defensive and say that they don't need help - even though they clearly need help. I usually step in and guide them a little, but it would be so wonderful if the students helped each other. I wonder how you can create a community in the classroom that better encourages students take initiative to help each other.